Christian writing gaming column for GameTap?

It's a ery good read so here ya go:



So here it is--can you feel the excitement? My first column for GameTap, but I guess before we go any further, I should let you know whose column it is that you are about to read. I am Christian Cage, and you may or may not know me from my years as a professional wrestler, more specifically a wrestler for Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (TNA). I wrestle on television every week, I’ve wrestled on the biggest pay-per-views in the industry and I’ve traveled the world and performed in front of huge crowds in too many countries to count. Somehow it wasn’t until I was asked to write this column that I truly felt that I had arrived. See, this isn’t going to be just any column; it’s a column that’s going to take you on a journey, a column that’s going to tickle your iris with every single sentence, a column that’s going to change the face of gaming as we know it! ...Eh, probably not, but it sounded good, right?

Anyway, I am very excited for this opportunity to branch out and try something different, and I’m even more excited for the opportunity to write about something that has helped me get through many of those around-the-world trips. That something is gaming. In future columns what I’d like to do is throw in some thoughts on my wrestling career, maybe some road stories or whatever I’ve got going on that’s interesting, but my focus will be playing a game every month and reviewing it. Doesn’t sound all that hard, right? For me it is. You see, I’m the type of gamer that plays a game and gets addicted to that game and plays absolutely nothing else but that game for months at a time. This will actually help me with my problem. I’m not lying--I have a serious problem. You want proof? Gears of War is still sitting unopened in its original packaging on a shelf in my game room (gasp!). There was a time I played Top Spin 2 for eight months straight. It got so bad, friends were planning to break into my house and steal it from my console just so I would play something else...but I’ll get back to that. Like I was saying, this will give me the chance to play a variety of games and give you my feedback--but until then I think I’ll just ramble.

I’ve always loved videogames, from the time I was a kid playing River Raid on my Atari 2600 to my time in college having all-night tournaments of EA's NHL 95 on Sega Genesis. From the GameCube to PS2 and today with the Xbox 360, it still amazes me how the games are evolving and becoming more realistic by the day. But I guess I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, right? Well here’s something you might not know: It still blows my mind to see myself actually in a videogame. And I’m not talking about creating yourself on Madden and giving yourself all the highest attributes. What I’m talking about is going into a scanning booth and standing perfectly still while a camera does a complete 360 around your body. Then standing in front of a green screen while someone takes pictures of every small detail about you, like your wrist tape, a tattoo, or the way your boots are laced. After that, going into a studio for a minimum of four hours with a script the size of a phone book to add your voice to the game. Then some time passes (I assume this is where they put the rest of the game together), maybe eight months to a year, and ta da! You’re a videogame character.

I used to be that kid that lived vicariously through John Elway leading the Broncos to the Super Bowl, and now I’m a guy that someone else is living vicariously through. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been eating at a restaurant or walking in a mall and a fan will tell me "I play as you all the time on Xbox." It’s a very cool feeling, but honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy online gaming? My favorite games are sports games. I love sports and because my schedule is so busy, playing online gives me the opportunity to get as close as I can to actually competing. And believe you me, I compete. Of course, I talk trash when I’m winning, nothing hurtful all in fun, but when I’m losing...all I’ll say is I hate losing--at anything! OK, I promised to get back to the Top Spin 2 story, so here it goes. I’m a tennis fan, so I figured I would pick this game up. I throw it in, start the career mode, and begin to build my player. Not long after that, it was far too easy to beat the game, so I started playing online. I started to become addicted to this game for some reason; I wanted to play other games, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. There were times when I was playing and I’d get a message from a friend saying, “Are you going to play anything else?” Or I would get an invite to join in another game, and I’d just ignore it.

I think I played so long because I actually became really good. I was moving up the rankings pretty fast, and I thought to myself, "I’ll play TS2 until I reach No. 1, and then I’ll break the disc and never play it again." Didn’t happen. I was ranked 52 and playing some guy from England; we were in a tie break in the final set, and for some reason this dude just starts hitting lob shots on every return. It threw me off, and I lost my concentration and the game. So afterwards, I’m asking the guy why he did that. We get into an argument (I’m really cool, right?), and next thing I know the door to my game room swings open and my wife is standing there glaring at me like a mother scolding a child, with her hands on her hips. I say to the guy in a calm voice, “I gotta go” (did I mention how cool I am?). Needless to say, that was my last game of Top Spin 2.

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on long enough; I just wanted to give you a little background on my gaming. Next month I will actually review a game and fill you in on some other interesting tidbits of what’s going on in my life. Maybe I should come up with a rating system for the games. Let me think about it and see if I can come up with anything good. Until then, thanks for checking this column out, and make sure you watch TNA Impact every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Spike TV.